More on fiscal 2010 funding for the SBA

Posted on | July 14, 2009 | Comments Off

capitol-by-SC-Fiasco

Here’s another funding update for you in the thrilling saga of Congressional appropriations for the Small Business Administration.

Late last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed a Financial Services and General Government spending bill that provided over $800 million for the SBA (including $104 million in disaster loan funding).

What’s nice about the information provided by the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on the subject is that we get a bit more detail than what came down from the House. So, for a few specifics:

~ the 7(a) program is back on a subsidized basis here, too, with $80 million appropriated to back $17.5 billion in loans

~ there’s also $3 million for Microloan, which will subsidize $25 million in microloans

~ $114 million for the Small Business Development Centers, up from $110 million last year and about $25 million more than the Obama Administration requested

~ more money for the other counseling programs, too; $14.3 million for the Women’s Business Centers and $7 million for SCORE, as well as $5.5 million for PRIME grants

The press release also comes with the obligatory quotes from the top lawmakers on the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.

From Chairwoman Mary Landrieu (D-LA):

“The SBA is the only agency dedicated to helping our entrepreneurs, and in this tough economy small businesses need the SBA’s programs more than ever,” Sen. Landrieu said. “Yet, the agency’s funding has been cut more than any other agency in the last eight years. We can’t reverse this trend overnight, but this bill goes a long way in rebuilding core programs. The funding will allow the agency to back additional loans to entrepreneurs, provide technical assistance to struggling businesses and help ensure that small businesses have the resources needed to create jobs and help America get back on its feet.”

From Ranking Member Olympia Snowe (R-ME):

During these challenging economic times, it is critical that the SBA receives the resources necessary to adequately support America’s entrepreneurs, who will lead our economy’s recovery,” said Ranking Member Snowe. “We are extremely grateful the Appropriations Committee provided a $22 million increase for the SBA over the President’s request, and I look forward to working with the Committee to bolster this amount to ensure that programs like SBDCs, Women’s Business Centers, SCORE, veteran entrepreneurs, HUBZones and Procurement Center Representatives receive appropriate support to effectively assist our nation’s innovative small businesses.”

For the record, they don’t really talk like that.

So, at this point, both the House and Senate versions of the Financial Services and General Government funding bill have been passed out of committee and are awaiting floor action. Looked at from a historical perspective, the funding process is proceeding at quite a clip — especially in the Senate.

Given that Congress will not be in session during the month of August, it will be interesting to see how many of these spending bills will be passed, conferenced and passed again, and signed by the President, before the fiscal year ends on September 30th.

I think it has been at least a generation since Congress got its appropriations chores done in a timely fashion. Maybe this is one of the ways the Obama Administration will change the way things are done in Washington? (ha ha!)


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